João Dias and Pedro Pires have an ongoing investigation, in which they influence each other through dialogue,interaction and discussion. The investigation focuses on the making of objects using low and high technology,in the creation of situations, contexts and characters. Each “Rehearsal” aims to be an attempt to observe andexplore the world, proposing and questioning reality.

“… Accordingly, seeing that our senses sometimesdeceive us, I was willing to suppose that thereexisted nothing really such as they presented tous; and because some men err in reasoning, andfall into paralogisms, even on the simplest mattersof geometry, I, convinced that I was as opento error as any other, rejected as false all the reasoningsI had hitherto taken for demonstrations;and finally, when I considered that the very samethoughts (presentations) which we experiencewhen awake may also be experienced when weare asleep, while there is at that time not one ofthem true, I supposed that all the objects (presentations)that had ever entered into my mindwhen awake, had in them no more truth than theillusions of my dreams. But immediately uponthis I observed that, whilst I thus wished to thinkthat all was false, it was absolutely necessary thatI, who thus thought, should be somewhat; andas I observed that this truth, I think, therefore Iam, was so certain and of such evidence that noground of doubt, however extravagant, could bealleged by the sceptics capable of shaking it, Iconcluded that I might, without scruple, acceptit as the first principle of the philosophy of whichI was in search.”

DESCARTES, RENÉ 1637 Discourse on Method

EXPLORING THE WORLD - A living relation withthe ideology of utopian explorers

Their glider experiments on the Outer Banksof North Carolina, though frustrating at times, hadled them down the path of discovery. Throughthose experiments, they had solved the problem ofsustained lift and more importantly they could nowcontrol an aircraft while in flight.The brothers felt they were now ready totruly fly. But first, the Wrights had to power theiraircraft. Gasoline engine technology had recentlyadvanced to where its use in airplanes was feasible.Unable to find a suitable lightweight commercial engine,the brothers designed their own. It was cruderand less powerful than Samuel Langley’s, but theWrights understood that relatively little power wasneeded with efficient lifting surfaces and propellers.Such propellers were not available, however. Scantrelevant data could be derived from marine propellertheory. Using their air tunnel data, they designedthe first efficient airplane propeller, one of their mostoriginal and purely scientific achievementsabout